“Because they won’t have any way to survive without help.” Asteria sighed miserably, sagging against him. “They’ll need guidance. A way to live. All of it.”
“Exactly,” he murmured back, but before anything else could be said between them, Mother just had to say her piece.
“You truly expect to free all the slaves across Celesterra, Asteria?” She began, and my sister’s head whipped over to her with narrowed eyes. “How do you expect us to live? They do… everything.”
“Yes, they do,” Asteria hissed back. “And what do they get for it?”
Mother scoffed, “I understand, truly I do, that you feel some sort of connection to the humans after being forced to live as one but?—”
“There is no but!” Asteria yelled, slamming her hand down on the table as smoke began rolling out of her mouth.
Mother sat back in her seat, wide-eyed, while Calix stood, putting a hand on Asteria’s back while shooting daggers at Mother. I could only cringe, resigned to watching the inevitable unfold.
“You sent me away, suppressed my magic, and all but slapped chains on me yourself! Gift-wrapped for the Fae!” Asteria snapped, her claws extending rapidly and digging into the table. I realized with a burst of surprise that her claws were silver and purple, not gold and purple.
What in the Otherworld?
“I—” Mother tried, only to be bowled over.
“I was raisedasa human,byhumans! I lived my entire life enraged by our treatment at the hands of the Fae. Ihatedall Fae with a burning passion because I just wanted the ability to control my own life!” she screamed, a distinct rasp from the smoke rising from her throat tinging her words.
I’d never seen Mother so shocked in my entire life.
“I had nothing and no one that was mine. My parents loved me, but because the Fae worked them to the bone, they barely had time for me. I spent years alone, miserable, dreading Placement Day when I’d get put to work. And when I finally went—Oh!” She threw her hands up in the air.
“I got stuck with a psycho prince who wanted nothing less than my body because, to him, Ibelongedto him. He owned me, and I had no autonomy. I couldn’t even pick my own clothes! Or wear my hair naturally because he preferred it curled! He manipulated me; he used me. He would have gotten his way and had me wholly had Calix not shown up just in time.”
“And you know what?” she growled, long fang shining in her mouth as her hands slammed back on the table, leaving gouges with her claws. “Every. Single. Human. In. Celesterra. Is dealing with the exact same thing. If notworse. Being whipped bloody and beaten. Killed to prove a point. Drained for their blood. Their lives belong wholly toyou,” she snarled, resentment pouring from her.
“And I will not allow it to continue. The humans will be free if I have to light this whole continent on fire.” A lick of fire billowed out of her mouth, and Mother stood quickly, her chair falling back in her rush to avoid the pillar of flame.
“This is happening with or without your support, Aurelia,” Calix chimed in, rubbing Asteria’s shoulders to try to calm her rage. It was never easy with dragons. I suppose we were all lucky Mother wasn’t also a dragon. Her cobalt and white-furred fox form didn’t bleed into her Fae form as much as it did with us dragons.
“Maybe, for your daughter’s sake, you should consider what means more to you. Having slaves to wait on you hand and foot, or your daughter herself,” he continued, and as conflicted as I was about the issue, that he would stand up for my sister in such a way had a flare of approval rising in me.
The silence in the room was deafening.
Asteria scoffed, turning from the room. Calix went to follow, but I ran after her first.
“Asteria!” I called, and she turned in a fury, only to calm slightly when she saw it was me.
“I’m sorry about her,” I told her sincerely. “She means well, truly, but she’s had control for so long, I think she’s struggling to adjust to what it actually means for her fully grown adult daughter, who she doesn’t truly know, to come in and take over.”
Asteria raised a brow, but I continued. “It’s no excuse, and I’ll talk to her.”
Asteria sighed deeply. “I don’t know what I imagined meeting my mother to be like, but…”
She trailed off, and I smiled weakly. “I imagine this must all be incredibly strange for you.”
She barked a laugh. “You have no idea.”
“I know tensions are high, but we both love you,” I told her quietly. “I hope you know that, at least. We’ve waited so long for you. My entire life has been preparing nonstop for the day you finally came home. It’s amazing to just have you in front of me.”
She softened at my words, or maybe my sincerity, possibly both. “Was that fair to you?”
Her murmured question took me off guard. I shook my head. “What do you mean?”
“By the Otherworld. You spent your whole life, just, what? Preparing to be my General? Did you not get to choose what you wanted to do?” she asked, clearly conflicted.
